Scott, lawmakers at odds going into session's last week

April 27, 2013|Aaron Deslatte, Capitol View

TALLAHASSEE — Gov. Rick Scott should be at the high tide of his influence, dropping the hammer on fellow Republican legislators thwarting his agenda.

The governor has made it clear he wants $2,500 pay raises for teachers and a $141 million manufacturing tax cut. But instead of browbeating lawmakers to get his way, he bolted town Friday to travel to Washington and do national-media interviews. Back in Tallahassee, his priorities are languishing.

The Legislature might not come together on a plan to offer health-care coverage to nearly 1 million people who could otherwise get it through a federally funded expansion of Medicaid. Scott drove tea partyers bonkers before the session by endorsing the President Barack Obama-backed expansion.

Sensing some potential retribution, House Speaker Will Weatherford, R-Wesley Chapel, and Senate President Don Gaetz, R-Niceville, took out some insurance last week by sending Scott their campaign-finance/ethics-reform priorities with veto-proof majorities.

The campaign bill boosts contribution limits from $500 per person to $3,000 for statewide candidates and $1,000 for legislative hopefuls. Scott has said he sees no reason for the increase. There are plenty of other rational reasons to veto either the campaign-finance or ethics bills: They have loopholes that allow the state parties to avoid disclosure and ex-lawmakers to continue covertly lobbying when they leave office.

But more on point, Scott has been plainly clear in his threats to veto their priorities. And legislative leaders are clearly thumbing their noses at him.

"Compromise is the name of the game," Gaetz told reporters. "I didn't get everything I wanted in all the bills so far that we passed … and I would suspect that another thing the governor will learn is that he won't get everything he wants."

But the leverage Scott can wield over lawmakers extends beyond campaign-finance bills. As Senate Appropriations Chairman Joe Negron, R-Stuart, put it when asked whether the budget talks were being tied to other bills: "Everything is tied to everything."

And so Scott's real power over lawmakers is the implicit threat that he will veto the pork projects they have littered throughout the $74 billion state budget set for final passage this week.

There are millions strewn throughout the budget for ballet schools, water projects and hometown campus construction.

There's $400,000 for the University of Central Florida's Lou Frey Institute of Politics and Government; $1 million for a "West Orange County Economic Development Business Center"; $600,000 for a "national Entrepreneur Center" in Orlando; $250,000 for Orange County's Public Library system; $50 million at the behest of Gardiner to finish a "Coast to Coast" biking trail from St. Petersburg through Orange County to Titusville — even $1 million for a Black Cultural Tourism Enhancement Commission being pushed by Sen. Geraldine Thompson, D-Orlando, which would market black historical and cultural sites.

That means the region has a lot to lose if Scott isn't happy when the session ends next weekend.

"In this budget, I've started to see a lot of special member projects," Scott told reporters. "This is the first time since 2006 we have a surplus. I want to make that sure we spend the money well."

Or they'll cut a deal to deliver some campaign wins to the governor, and everybody will leave Tallahassee happy.